Into thin air

Can millions of listeners just disappear?

That's a question plaguing Howard Stern and one with vital implications for radio itself in the wake of the shock jock's heralded and hyped switch from free to satellite broadcasting.

The self-proclaimed King of All Media once commanded a national audience of 12 million daily listeners before jumping to satellite in January. But since then, his kingdom has shrunk to a small fraction of that size. Meanwhile, the shock jock's main replacements thus far have failed to hold very much of the former flock.

According to industry analysts, the new Stern math scans like this: At best, he took between 1 million and 2 million listeners with him, and his replacements, spread across many of the country's major radio markets, are drawing numbers in a similar range.

That leaves 8 million to 10 million nomadic listeners nationwide wandering the terrestrial radio dial in search of a new voice or sound to lead them out of the morning drive-time wilderness. Call them the Howard Stern diaspora, those legions unwilling to fork over satellite subscription fees and unimpressed by pretenders to the throne.

The timing could scarcely be worse for terrestrial radio, which needs an oversize, rudderless audience like it needs another intriguing and easy-to-use competitor -- say, an iPod, podcasts, personalized CDs, or, Stern notwithstanding, the siren songs of satellite.

''It's unprecedented that a radio personality of Stern's magnitude has ever just pulled the plug on his show," said Perry Michael Simon, news-talk-sports editor of AllAccess.com, an online journal of the radio industry.

With limited ratings data so far, it's hard to tell where the Stern herd is roaming, say analysts. But Arbitron ratings demonstrate they aren't stampeding toward Stern's big-name replacements, former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth on the East Coast and comedian Adam Carolla on the West Coast. Although any comparisons between the newcomers and Stern are unfair, say analysts, the pair's ratings are nevertheless widely regarded as disappointing and, in one case, possibly job threatening.

In their first couple of months, Carolla registered less than a quarter of Stern's ratings while Roth notched well under a fifth. Executives at CBS Radio have said it will take up to two years to build an audience around their new talent, but even so many contend that Roth might soon be fired.

''I think CBS is already trying to figure out an exit strategy with Roth," said Michael Harrison, editor and publisher of the talk radio magazine Talkers. ''The jury is still out on Carolla."

Stern's numbers at Sirius, which has more than 4 million subscribers, remain a mystery. The satellite company, which charges about $13 per month for the service, won't release audience numbers. But analysts speculate that if a quarter of the company's subscribers are daily Stern listeners, that would be a staggering success.

In a recent interview, Stern attacked ex-listeners who are clinging to terrestrial radio and have refused to cheer him on the other side.

''You haven't come with me yet? How dare you?" Stern told Entertainment Weekly. ''We're up to wild, crazy stuff; the show has never sounded better."

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt intend to have their baby in Namibia and are considering giving the child a Namibian name. Samuel Sheefeni Nuuyoma, governor of the Namibian province where the couple is staying, told the Sunday Times of South Africa that he had breakfast with the stars Friday, and Jolie made those decisions because ''she loves Namibia." Namibian officials earlier confirmed that the couple and five other people, including two children, arrived in Walvis Bay on a chartered jet from Paris, prompting speculation their baby will be born in Africa. The couple has been largely shielded from reporters by security at a secluded beach resort near Walvis Bay, in an area where Naimbia's sand dunes descend spectacularly to the sea. The Sunday Times published photos of Jolie hugging 1-year-old Zahara and Pitt carrying sleeping Maddox, 4, to a sport utility vehicle.

Ashanti opted out of a concert in South Africa over the weekend after her cousin was killed by a drunken driver. Authorities said Quinshae Snead, 20, was on her way to Ashanti's hotel to fetch something for the Grammy-winning singer Saturday when the car she was riding in was rear-ended. Snead was flung from the car as it rolled over and thrown into the path of another car in the opposite lane. The 17-year-old unlicensed driver had stolen his mother's car, said Johannesburg metro police. He was arrested for drunken driving and hospitalized.

You'll have to wait to see Mel Gibson's Mayan epic ''Apocalypto." A spokesman for Disney, which is releasing the movie, said yesterday the production had fallen behind because of heavy rains in Mexico, where Gibson is shooting the film. As a result, the release of the action adventure film has been bumped from Aug. 4 to Dec. 8.

FROM WIRE REPORTS